Bob, you are 100% right.
WK you are 100% right.

We all know there is a problem, and what it is. The burning question is what do we do about it? Commerce and industry are fighting back by many firms not employing school leavers, until they have had a t least 1 or 2 years at an FE College. But that disadvantages those who can't or won't go to College, and puts extra strain on the FE sector.

The problems with maths, I am personally convinced, need to be sorted out a long time before the students reach 16 years.

Unfortunately I don't think the teachers necessarily have the correct skills in the students early years to rectify this problem. The DfE is to toughen the basic skills required by teachers, but the new tests haven't been posted yet and they have taken down the old tests.

Department for Education - Expert panel to toughen up tests for trainee teachers

My niece first told me about these tests when she decided to be a teacher, was a bit shocked when I said they were easy and that I thought the Maths test "was an insult to intelligence".

And I guess that the required levels in the US are no higher as she now teaaches in Flagstaff, AZ.

Bob, you are 100% right.
WK you are 100% right.

We all know there is a problem, and what it is. The burning question is what do we do about it? Commerce and industry are fighting back by many firms not employing school leavers, until they have had a t least 1 or 2 years at an FE College. But that disadvantages those who can't or won't go to College, and puts extra strain on the FE sector.

I would say we are already into the second generation that cannot do simple arithmetic without a calculator or computer.

+1;

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I think you are probably right about the ability to write a comprehensive item, be that a letter or report etc.

But as a one time instructor of electronics, which in the main part I gave up in the mid 90's. I would say we are already into the second generation that cannot do simple arithmetic without a calculator or computer.

And computers are pretty much to blame. It's one thing to use computers as a tool to do our work and provide a communications link to the rest of the world but it seems to me that the current school generation is depending so much on computers that they wouldn't be able to function without them. Example, a cashier at a store can't make change if the cash register fails or the power goes out. Young people can't spell without a spell checker to clean up their mistakes and most do not even bother. There is now speech recognition software that not only spells for a student but also modifies composition to correct syntax errors.

OK, the really smart students probably learn the basics well enough to function without the help of all our electronic devices but I sure pity the rest when the power goes out and the last battery dies.

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Bob DeWoody

My motto: Never do today what you can put off until tomorrow as it may not be required. This no longer applies in light of current events.